
C22. 



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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 

P 'J" ll'li W^^ 'III ill' N 



013 789 241 8 • 



P6iiimlfp6« 



6 1st Congress, ) 
2d Session. \ 



SENATE. 



Document 
No. 567. 



IE 672 

C22 
ICopy 1 



SPEECH OF HON. JOSEPH G. CANNON. 



Mr. Crane presented the following- 

SPEECH OF HON. JOSEPH G. CANNON BEFORE THE MIDDLESEX 
CLUB, BOSTON, MASS., SATURDAY, APRIL 30, 1910, ON "ULYSSES 
S. GRANT, THE MODEST, COURAGEOUS MAN, THE NORMAL 
AMERICAN." 



May 26, 1910.— Ordered to be printed. 



Mr. Cannon. Mr. Toastmaster and gentlemen of the Middlesex 
Club, I never read biit one speech in my life and would not undertake 
to read my remarks to-night to an audience of 3,000 people, but I am 
reminded as 1 look into your faces of an occurrence out on the Wabash 
before most of you were born. The place, a little country general 
store where evor^^thing was sold from mackerel and tar to silk and 
prints; boy of all work, deputy postmaster. 17 years old, the individual 
who now addresses you. It was a farming community, before the day 
of iailwa\'s. Markets were down the Wabasii. down the Ohio, down 
the Mississippi, on Hatboats. The man or boy who had floated down 
the Mississippi on a tiatboat. when he returned on the little stern- 
wheel steamer, was a traveled gentleman, looked up to in the com- 
munity. 

One cold winter day a man, not a relative of your Senator Crane, 
but a man by the name of Crane, came into the little establishment and 
said, '' Is there any mail for me?" I passed back to the place where 
the mail was kept. It was before the day of post-ofiice boxes. I gave 
him three letters and two or three papers. This Mr. Crane lived bv 
traveling, generalh' walking, altiiough sometimes a farmer would 
give him a lift, and he would go 10 miles. 20, 60. or 100 miles, to 
give talks which he called lectui'es, the compensation which he re- 
ceived being all the way from $.5, and on special occasions, $10. Ttiis 
being a verj'cold day, he rubbed his hands as he went back to the red- 
hot box stove around which were live or six farmers, among them 
Aaron Merris. He opened one letter, and as he rubbed his hands he 
said. '"Ah!'' '• What's the matter. Craned' said Uncle Merris. "'An 
invitation from Boston to lecture. I wonder if I had better accept 
it?" "'Of course you had,'' said Aaron Merris. "Of course vou 
had. I never did like them Boston men." [Applause.] 

To-night for the second time in my life I am going to crave the 
indulgence of my audience while I read. What 1 may do before I sit 
down I do not know, because 1 have the birthright in Friends' meet- 



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2 SPEECH OF HON. JOSEPH G. CANNON. 

iiiijs. ynu know, of iK'irii: iiiovril liy the >piiit a^* it is niven. [ Laughter 
and applause. J 

One of the wealcnesses of age is the tendeiu y to live in the past; 
l)ut it is true that the eontests of tho.»e who have gone before, their 
battles for eorrect j>olicies in war and peace, their efforts to write 
those policies into legislati»)n, their struggles against the counsels of 
the vicious, the ignorant, the >elti>h. and the ilemagogue, constitute a 
glorious history, show the timbre of the people who have preceded 
us, and furnish examples and experience by which we may profit in 
solving the problems that confront us to-da^^ Therefore, I make no 
apology for uniting with the Middlesex Clul), a Kepublican chd), in 
i-elebi-ating the t)irthday anniversary of Tlysses S. (irant. 

In Anril, isfil, he was a clerk" in his" fathers store in Galena. 
In Apiil, 1805, he was the most famous military man in the world. 
In April, istil, he presided at a I'nion meeting in a small Illinois 
town, unknown even to the majority of his neighbors; in April, 1865, 
he presid<'d at that most famous I'nion meeting at Appomattox, when 
armed resistance to the I'nion ended. He had not come to this success 
and di.>-tinction through political favoritism or favorable publicity, 
unless we accei)t ( leneial Bragg's e])igram on (irover Cleveland: " We 
love him for the enemies he made." 

All the political generals and all the literary generals were opposed 
to (iiant. and without friends in \\'a>hington and nothing but his 
record as he uiade it commending him. he went from one victory to 
another, compcdling recognition until Lincoln placed bim in command 
of all the I'nion ai'niies before he had ever met or seen the man. 
Cieneral Sherman said every other general in the western army had his 
})res> agent with him, antl while the newspaper accounts were necessa- 
rily confusing as to who were the real heroes, none of them gave 
(irant the credit: but the truth coidd not be kept from the Govern- 
ment and the people. 

Almost up to the day of Lee's surrender there were severe criti- 
cisms of (irant and the country at times was compelled to doubt, as 
they read of him as a "•butchei" needlessly saciiticing life, as a 
"drunkard" unfit to command troops, as a dull and commonplace 
man, utterly devoid of military genius: l)ut somehow^ his work and the 
victories that followed him answered the criticism, and the men in 
the held and their friends at home waited with hope that he would 
succeed where others b(>tter ad\ ertised had failed. 

NO IIY>TKi{I.\ IN (ih'AN'r. 

fteneral (irant seem> to have been a |)erfectly normal man. He had 
neither enthusiasm nor ])assi<»n. aiul no hysteiical development of any 
kind. I le had no sense of the dramatic, and failed to do those thino-s 
which instant ly app<'al to the public eye. He was so calm under all 
circumstaru'cs that he seems to ha\'e conununicated some of his unex- 
citable nature to those al)out him. even to the horse he rode. Who 
ever heard of (irant on a piancing. rearing war horsed Why, even 
the artists who ai-e ever looking for the dramatic and picturesque 
have always ])ictured (irant sitting (|uietly on a horse standing on four 
feet, as (piietly as though just unhitched fi'om the ])low. 

At \'icksl>urg (irant sent Logan into the city to take formal posses- 
sion when remlterton siiriendered: at Appomattox he wore the ordi- 

JUN 18 1910 ■■•; : 



SPEECH OF HON. JOSEPH G. CANNON. 3 

^ nar\' service uniform when he accepted Lee'« surrender, and he could 
-^ : see no dramatic climax in the fall of the Confederacy, to be commem- 
orated by his entering- Lee's lines, or taking personal possession of 
Richmond. He hurried to Washington to arrange for disbanding the 
great armies under his command, and for sending the soldiers home 
to their families and friends and former occupations. This same 
indifference to dramatic demonstrations and situations followed him 
through life. 

In his tour around the world he met crowned heads, statesmen, and 
plain people with the same simple manner. He surprised the Ger- 
mans by walking from his hotel to the palace to call on Prince Bis- 
marck, and the Prince, we are told, met him at the door instead of 
waiting to receive him in state. He met the Queen of England, the 
Czar of Russia, the Emperor of Japan, and the King of Siam in the 
same way, conforming to the etiquette of the court, but for himself 
never dropping the role of the plain American gentleman. He might 
have appeared in the courts of Europe and Asia wearing the four 
stars of a general, won in saving the Union, and by no man of right 
worn from Washington to his day, l)ut he refused to appear in the 
uniform which gave him greatest distinction in the eyes of the world, 
and appeared ever and alwa3's as an American citizen. 

THE CRITICS OF GRANT. 

There is no better illustration of the fickleness and hysteria of critics 
and the undercurrent of steadfastness in the people than is found in 
the treatment of General Grant from the time he came on the national 
stage as a defender of the Union to the day of his death on Mount 
MacGregor. His critics could find no military genius, no patriotic 
devotion, and no moral courage in this man while he was fighting great 
battles, but after each and every victory they were forced to join in 
the chorus of approval that came from the great heart of the people. 
The critics condenmed Grant at Paducah, at Corinth, at Donelson, at 
Vicksburg, at Chatbinooga, in the Wilderness, and they kept the peo- 
ple who depended upon the public prints for information in a fever of 
unrest while the armies under Grant were fighting those battles, but 
the critics were forced to join in the approval " Well done, faithful 
servant," after the battles were won. The critics were bitter, uncom- 
promising, and even malicious, while President Grant's administration 
was woi-king out the policy of reconstruction, but the people approved 
the work that was accomplished. The critics misrepresented the first 
citizen as he quietly encircled the globe with the modesty and dignit}^ 
of an American gentleman, but the people gave Grant such a welcome 
on his return as had never before nor since been given to any man in 
America. The critics abused and villified Gi'ant when, without his 
inspiration, his admirers sought to give him a third nomination, but 
the pe'ople showed their appreciation of his worth when he took his 
place in the ranks of the Republican party and gave his services to the 
election of General Garfield. The critics stripped the verv soul of the 
mati, robbed him of character even, when a characterless speculator 
robbed him and his family of their property, but the people cheered 
the dying soldier back to life as he labored with his pen to pay the 
debts that had been fi-audulently placed against his name and fame, 
and when at last death conquered the man who had been invincible 



4 SPEECH OF HON. JOSEPH G. CANNON. 

Leforo ill I liuinaii foes there was sueh Ji wave of .sorrow and commen- 
dation from the people of all the world as had come up from humanity 
hut onee in our nation's historv, when the hand of the assassin struck 
tiown Lincoln. But h^t u- not he too hard on the critics. They are 
hut the representatives of and vehicles for the outpourinos of hysteria 
und the human frailty called "envy."' that has been a part of man's 
nature since the expulsion from the (iarden of Kden. 

There is a lci,'end that in the old Thurinjiian forests there used to be 
strant,^e l)einc,'s. a race of uiants, moie and less than men, who were 
considered by the Romans as horrible beasts and by the Germans as 
divine incariiations. and who, according- to the occasion, ran the risk 
of Iteinir exterminated or worshiped. So it was with this modest, 
unpretentious, undramatlc soldier and statesman. He was hero to 
the people wiiom he served, but devil to those who looked on him 
only with envy. 

Lincoln had a hundred brilliant oeuiuses criticisino- him and telling- 
'hiuj what he out^ht to do, but Lincoln saved the Tnion without fol- 
lowino: their advice or heediny their criticism, (irant had a thousand 
men in and out of the army tellino- him how to take Vicksburg-; but 
he followed his own plan evolved there on the ground and won. So 
it has been throughout our history, and so it will be to the end. Ours 
is a repi-esentative government, and the men who administer it must 
be representative of the people, not of one class or occupation; and 
while the critic has his place, he does very little to help make the 
wheels go round, lie may get into the clouds and spread a mist of 
lia/y talk about pi'ogressive ideas, or down in the mire throwing mud 
at everybody, but we lu'cd men who will keep on the level and deal 
with realities to work out detinite i)lans. 

REFUSKl) TO COMMEMORATE FALL OF CONFEDERACY. 

(leneral (J rant refused to have the surrender at Appomattox com- 
memorated in a historic painting representing him as receiving the 
sword of Lee, as is represented the surrender of Burgoyne to General 
(iates at Saratoga, in the great painting hung in the Rotunda of the 
National Capitol. In fact, he never touched the sword of Lee. In 
that refusal ( iiant not only illustrated his own character as a man whose 
whole contest had been the I'cstoration of the l^nion, but his action 
typilied the sentiment of the Republican party, then and now responsi- 
ble for the condui't of the Government. 

The Federal (loverinnent has never conunemorated in monument or 
picture the fall of the confederacy. It never will. [Applause.] It 
has provided for the preservation of the most historic battlefields and 
there mingle the monuments to the heroism of both armies, but the 
policy of the Republican party has l)een for the benefit of the whole 
Tnion - North and South. Kast and West — and this policy ha- obliter- 
ated the scars of war more completely than any other policy could 
have doiu», for it has spread the industries once confined to New P]ng- 
land f)vei- the South and ^^^^st. and although New England has multi- 
plied her industiies many, many times, she has now but a minor 
])ercet)tage of the great industrial output of this country. 

One artist, Kmanuel Leutze, foreign-born, like so many of our 
jK'oph'. has portrayed on canvas the spirit of the American people, 
jind I am glad the Congress made that picture a conspicuous feature 



SPEECH OF HON. JOSEPH G. CANNON". 6 

of the decoration of the Capitol. It is labeled: " Westward the 
Course of Empire takes its Wa3\" and it hangs over the landing of 
the main stairway in the House wing of the Capitol at Washington, 
where ever3'one must see it in going to the galleries of the House of 
Representati\ es. Some critics have said it is not a great artistic pro- 
duction, but to me it is the most inspiring picture I have ever seen, 
because it presents the real spirit that has made this the greatest 
nation on earth. 

WESTWARD THE COURSE OF EMPIRE TAKES ITS WAY. 

In the foreground of this great painting is depicted the struggles 
and privations of the early wagon train crossing a pass in the Rockj 
Mountains ; beyond are the towering cliffs in the backbone of the con- 
tinent, and in the distance are gushing geysers, grand canyons, and 
the idealization of an Eldorado, stretching like a mirage of hope before 
the eyes of those in the emigrant train. In that picture is given the 
most graphic story ot the trials and the perseverance and the unconquer- 
able spirit of the western pioneers. There in the mountain fastness, 
gathered about the old '"prairie schooner," is the family circle, the 
foundation of our civilization; the mother with the babe at her breast, 
the children at pla}', the father with rifle in hand guarding his little tiock, 
and the adventurous spirit of youth scaling the cliffs above the pass. 
There is the broken wagon and even the grave of one who has died in 
the struggle to reach the promised land. But the trials and discourage- 
ments have not l)roken the spirit of these pioneers, contesting with 
nature in their effort to scale the mountains, which your ow n Daniel 
Webster said should mark the limitations of this nation, and there 
was to have been planted the statue of the God Terminus, to remind 
the people, '' Thus far and no farther."' 

It is such a picture as comparatively few now living can appreciate, 
for it is not merely the artist's fane}', but real history placed on canvas; 
the most romantic history of the West, worthy a place beside that of 
the Pilgrim's Landing, portraying incidents which brought out in best 
foi'm the indomitiible spirit of the American people. And the hope 
which then seemed to be but a mirage has become the most real, the 
most glorious part of our development. Those pioneers who went 
into the West created Commonwealths which are the most progressive 
and exhibit the most remarkable development under a people's gov- 
ernment. To-day the great Middle West is the industrial center of 
the country, producing in manufactured product more than all of New 
England and New York and Pennsylvania combined, while the Pacific 
coast has developed into an empire of production such as was never 
dreamed of b}' the pioneers who crossed the continent in search of 
gold. 

And now I want to see some artist, with a broad conception of this 
phenomenal development, paint another picture, gathering upon the 
canvas an allegorical presentation of this realization of the dreams and 
the hopes which inspired the pioneers portraj^ed by Leutze, the German- 
born painter, in that remarkable picture of Westward the Course of 
Empire Takes its W^ay. 



6 SPEECH OF HON. JOSEPH G. CANNON. 

THE LIBERAL MOVEMENT. 

The adiniiiistration of Grant was opposed by the most remarkable 
coalition that was ever known in American politics. A body of men 
who were disapiminted in the administration met in convention at Cin- 
cinnati and called themselves Liberal Republicans. 

O men of the ^liddlesex Club, the Repul)lican party, consisting- of 
a majority of the people of the Republic, tighting the battles of the 
Repul)lic under the leadership of that great party, contributed money 
by taxation to pay the expenses of constructing a navy such as made 
useless all the navies of the world. [Applause.] Beginning with Lin- 
*-oln. and lasting from that time to this day, the policy of protection 
and all the policies of the Republican party have been in continuous 
operation for the prosperity and development of this country, except 
for a very short period which most men of my age and your age do 
not recall with pleasure. [Laughter.] Our great party has been 
glorious in history, magnificent in accomplishment, from its birth to 
the present time." [Applause.] It is still virile, still true to the coun- 
try, to a government of the people; still helping to develop the 
re>iources of the counti-y and to continue those policies under which 
was fought the greatest civil war that ever was waged in the tide of 
time. We have substantially paid the war debt, and we ever hold in 
grateful remembrance the men who wore the blue and had the highest 
post of honor in that great contest, constituting as they did one-third 
of the battle force of the Northland, while the other two-thirds were 
maintaining the Government and supporting the army. Since the close 
of that great war we have paid to the heroes who fought in the field 
and to their widows and orphans four thousand million dollars in pen- 
sions, thank God, and we will continue to I'emember their service and 
bravei-y until the last of them has answered to the final roll call. 
[Aj)[)lause.] 

The Republican party I It was good enough for a majority of the 
people, when certain men, on their own motion, got together at Cin- 
cinnati and named themselves Lil)eral Re])ublicans: and in these days, 
when we have '* ])rogressive"' Repu])licans, and "independent" Repub- 
licans, () men of the Middlesex Club, let us wipe the word " Republican'' 
ort' our baiHieis. and forget oui' paity's glorious achievements in the 
past. l)('foie w(^ atld an adjec-tive to the name Republican. [Prolonged 
ajjplause. 1 The history of the Republican party in all its contests in 
the past proves to us that when somebody would attempt to improve the 
name ""Republican," he has it in mind to delude geimine Republicans 
without having the courage to march over and join the Democratic 
party, as he ought. [Ayiplause.] That is what one of your distin- 
guished citizens has done. I honor him for his business ability and 
nis cori-ect habits of life. Once he answei'ed to the name of Repub- 
lican, but within the last two weeks has i)roclaimed in New York, as well 
as here, tiiat he has found rest in the ))osom of the Democracy, and he 
turned and exhorted those who were like unto him to follow his exam- 
pl<' and enlist under the Hag which would tell the story of their policies. 
In bsT'i the Liberal Republicans nominated for President the most 
radical Reput)lican the country had ever known, the high priest of 
Republicanism and protection, Horace (ireeley, and for Vice-President, 
B. (iratz Brown. The Democratic convention became an echo, ac- 
cepted candidates and platform of the Liberals, suppressing the iden- 



SPEECH OF HON. JOSEPH G. CANNON. 7 

tity of the Democratic party. Greeley was a radical protectionist, 
those who nominated him were free traders; (ireeley had complained 
that Lincoln did not go fast enough in prosecuting the war and eman- 
cipating the slaves; they had declared the war was a failure. It was 
yoking the lion and the "ass, with a platform that relegated to the peo- 
ple the one great economic issue on which the parties had always 
divided — the tariff. That platform said: 

Recognizing that there are in our midst honest but irreconcilable differences of 
opinion with regard to the respective systems of protection and free trade, we remit 
the discussion of the subject to the people in their congressional districts and to the 
decision of the Congress thereon, wholly free from executive interference or dictation. 

My God! suppose they had succeeded. What a revision that would 
have been. The convention was not a union of men thinking alike on 
political questions, l)ut a coalition of men who had nothing in common 
except personal grievances and disappointments. There were great 
men in that movement, but they did not have great aspirations or 
great inspirations. They forgot" the very first precept of a govern- 
ment of the people, a union on principles of government. They were 
opposing men. not advancing ideas. Greeley was most generous in 
accepting the promise of Democratic support. In his letter he spoke 
of "a new departure from jealousies, strifes, and hates into an atmos- 
phere of peace, fraternity, and nuitual good will," and he assured his 
allies that he regarded them as even l>etter Democrats than before, 
while he was no less a Republican than he ever had been. How history 
repeats itself. [Laughter. ] 

Where was the conversion^ We were not permitted to know. 
Neither party to the coalition followed the example of Saul of Tarsus 
and acknowledged its conversion and changed its name. They did not 
see the light from heaven, but apparently from the Treasury. It was 
a coalition without any progressive principle, though it was heralded 
as a progressive movement. Its purpose in (effect was to arrest prog- 
ress, to check the reconstruction of the South, to stop the march toward 
resumption of specie payment, to halt the settlement of the war debt, 
to leave principles of government stagnant, and bicker over the trivial 
things in administration, with slander as the mainspring and scandal 
mongers for the leaders in a great national campaign. History repeats 
itself again. [Applause.] 

THE PEOPLE WERE NOT FOOLED. 

It would have l)een a serious retlection upon the sober sense and 
the intelligence of the American people if such a campaign had suc- 
ceeded. It failed, moreignominiously than any other national political 
campaign ever befoi-e or since failed, and its failure taught a lasting 
lesson. Virile manhood does not form coalitions of radicalism and 
liberalism, of vitriol and soothing sirup, of Republicanism and De- 
mocracy. Men may change their political convictions, but they will 
not attempt to yoke up protection and free trade, sound money and 
fiat money, or sacrifice all principles .of political government for a 
mere temporary victory and the occupation of oflice, or for petty 
reveno-e. Such coalitions have failed ever and should fail always. 
There is no political purgatory, no halfway house between political 
integrity and benevolent pretense. Any attempt of that kind is set 
down as demagogv. 



b SPEECH OF HON. JOSEPH G. CANNON. 

Eniery A. Stoiivs. a brillianl liiwvtr in C"liicao-o, tittingly character- 
ized the coalition in these words; 

I think tliat tlit- counsel <>l a class of men who are unal>k' tu agree on anything 
except their antipathies, and have no harmony except in tlieir dislikes, who agree 
upon nothing hut opi)osition and are unahle to agree ui)on any affirmative line of 
ptjiicy, is not likely to intlnence a great party. 

And they were not. 

The candidates of this coalition were both editors and the inspiration 
seems to have been a hope of securing control of the oi'gans of pub- 
licity. In that hope and design they were very sticcessful. Through 
Greeley, a strong protectionist, the New York Tribune, then the most 
powerful Kepul»lican paper in the rnited States, was Itrought to the 
support of the coalition, and its e.\ami)le was followed b}' other 
Republican papers, such as the Springfield Kcpublieaii, the Chicago 
Tribiuie, the Cincinnati Commercial, tlien the most forceful Republi- 
can paper in Ohio. They made common cause for the coalitions with 
the New York ^^'ol•ld. the Evening Post, the Chicago Times, and sub- 
stantially all the metropolitan papers in the West, save alone the 
(ilobe- Democrat of St. Louis, before the war, during the war, after 
the war. and from that time to this the one shining great exception 
which has been true to the policies of the Ke])ubliean party in dark 
days and bright days. All honor to the Clobe- Democrat. [Applause.] 

A POWERFUL COMBINATION 

It was a most formidable combination, these great papers hjiving 
access to millions of readers, and their efforts were supplemented by 
those of such men as Senator Lyman Trumbull, Stanley Matthews, 
George Hoadley, David Dudley Field, Carl Schurz, Joseph Pulitzer, 
Horace White, Cassius M. Clay, (ieorge W. Julian. Edward Atkinson, 
David A. Wells, Theodore Tilton, and many others. It was a combi- 
nation of those who controlled the Democratic party on the one hand 
with some of those who had been able and forceful in the Republican 
party on the other hand to deliver the Democi'atic party over solidly 
to (Jreeley and to disrupt the Republican j)arty. Perhaps it was the 
most powerful combination of the leaders of the respective parties that 
has ever been formed in the history of the country. 

In May, ls72, th(> metropolitan press of the country announced the 
dissolution of the Republican party and began to ])repare its obituary. 
But the Republican part}', organized by Lincoln, under whose leader- 
ship the Uni(jn had been preserved and the amendments to the Consti- 
tution adopted, beli(ning in the policy of protection, and having 
written that policy into law, could not be controlled ])y leaders or by 
the press. The men who formed the combination reckoned without 
the great body of th(> peo])Ie: they were not representing the people, 
))ut their own selfish ambitions. Those who made up the rank and file 
of the R(>publican pai'ty did not attempt to compromise with the ene- 
mies of the polici(vs of their party, but, turning their faces to the foe, 
proclaimed anew their devotion to the economic pi'inciples of the 
Repul)lican party. 

The great body of the people treated these newspapers and other 
))ublications that undertook to deliver their readers o\'er to the coalition 
as just so many individuals. They remained true to their convictions 
and true to the Republican party, and in November, 1872, Grant was 



SPEECH OF HON. JOSEPH G. CANNON. 9 

elected by the greatest popular vote and the greatest proportion of the 
electoral vote ever given to a President. The people gave a fitting 
and lasting illustration of the fact that the publisher of a great news- 
paper may have thousands of readers, but he can not destroy their 
political convictions or deliver their votes in the ballot-box. The 
American people did tlieir own thinking at that time and will continue 
to do their own thinking in the future. (Applause.) 

USURPERS CHARGED USURPATION, 

After nearly forty years have passed, it is curious reading to turn 
back to the platform of that coalition and see such terms as " usurpa- 
tion" and '"treacherv" hurled at the President, and then note that 
the so-called Liberal Kepublican convention was entireh^ self-consti- 
tuted and represented nobody but the self-appointed delegates usurping 
the name of the party they were trying to destroy and the functions 
of a national convention, while the Democratic convention betrayed 
the Democratic party by surrendering to the so-called Liberal party, 
accepting its candidates and platform without the change of a word or 
a letter. The whole combination of Republican bolters, Democrats, 
and publishers, showed how blind men may become when the}^ forget 
the representative character of our Government in its party conven- 
tions, as well as in the Congress and in the executive departments. But 
when we turn to the election returns and see how that coalition was 
repudiated by the voters at the polls, we are reminded of Lincoln's 
remark, that — 

You can fool some of the people all the time; all the people some of the time; but 
you can't fool all the people all the time. 

(Applause.) 

There were faults in (i rant's administration, as there would have 
'been in any administration following that of President Johnson, which 
divided and demoralized the party in power, and these faults might 
have been pointed out and assailed by the properly constituted party 
convention that represented nearly one-half of the American people; 
but when the prosecutors of Grant demonstrated that they had no 
client the farce became so apparent that the campaign ended in 
ridicule. 

In his memoirs Grant tells of an incident in his campaign in Texas, 
where one night the camp was disturbed by an unearthly noise that 
had a panicky effect on the soldiers and caused some uneasiness among 
the officers. A squad was detailed to make a reconnoissance. The}'' 
stealthily moved in the direction from which the sounds came, and as 
the men rounded a butte they discovered two coyotes on little hillocks 
engaged in a serenade. The noise made by the Liberal and Democratic 
press against Grant was a fitting parallel to that episode in his early 
life. It did not frighten him nor the Republican rank and tile who 
marched to the polls with the same determination they had four 3' ears 
before, and 600,0()0 more of them dropped Republican ballots into the 
boxes, many of these being Demoi-rats, who took that method of 
repudiating the attempted betraval of their leaders who had sought to 
deliver them to the pretense of a party that represented nothing but 
sound and fury. [Applause.] The presumptious attempt to destroy 
the Republican party did destroy the coalition, and the i^an who had 
done so much to build up the Republican part}^ and make its policies 



10 SPEECH OP HON. JOSEPH G. CANNON. 

dominant in the coiintrv, died of u broken heart before the electoral 
college met to tubulate the result. 

A COALITION FOR FREE TRADE. 

The real purpose of the coalition aoainst (jrant in 1872 was the over- 
throw of the protectiv e policy. The Democrats in their convention of 
1868, had declared for a tariff for revenue only, just as they have done 
ever since. The men who were most conspicuous in the Liberal con- 
vention were what were called " free traders," and were in harmony 
with the Democratic policy touching the tariff, and while both Liber- 
als and Democrats in 1872 relegated the tariff' question to the people 
in their congressional districts, in 1870 they were all for the old Demo- 
cratic policy of free trade, as they have been from that time to the 
present, and as they are now. [Applause.] 

When the Democratic party, through the aid of the mugwump ele- 
ment, came into control of the House of Representatives and the presi- 
dency in 1885, the Mills tariff' bill was passed; but it failed of enact- 
ment because of the Republican Senate. When tbe}^ secured full 
power in 1898, they enacted the Wilson law, repudiated by their Presi- 
dent because it was not sufficiently radical, and yet it was sufficiently 
radical to cripple the industries of the country, close the factories, 
throw out of employment 3,()00,(»()0 laborers, and fail in producing 
revenue enough to carry on the ( Jovernment, rendering it necessary 
for the (xovernment to borrow $2(55, U(>0, 000 for ordinary expenses. 
Here was the culmination of the long tight through the years against 
the protective policy, and its success was the greatest disaster that has 
ever come to the industries of the United States. [Applause. J 

DINGLEY LAW BRINGS PROSPERITY. 

The country, having had this object lesson, reversed itself, and in 
1896 elected McKinley President and gave the Republican party full 
power in the House and Senate. Promptly that party wrote into the 
statutes of the United States the policy of protection, under which the 
countr}' entered upon an era of unexampled progress and development, 
which has continued substantially to the present time. In this pros- 
perity the wages of labor are increasing, and I have no doubt, in 
proper degree, will continue to increase. [Applause.] 

The tariff act of 190!) is not perfect any more than were the numer- 
ous tariff acts that ])re('eded it, and probably no better adapted to the 
conditions to-day than they were to the conditions which they were 
designed to meet. But the worth of the new law is to be measured 
by the conditions of industry and business since its enactment. We 
had unemployed men, we had idle freight cars, we had much uncer- 
tainty in n)any lines of busint>ss. and we had a large deticit in the 
Federal Treasury. Within eight month-, after the enactment of the 
Payne law this had all changed. We now have full employment, no 
idle cars, and the revenues are again ample to meet the expenditures 
of the (Government. This is in marked contrast to the effects which 
followed the enactment of the Wilson tariff act of 1891, and so like 
those that followed the enactment of the Dingley Act of 1897, that it 
seems as good a justification, as good a promise for the future as we 
could have expected fioin any legislation that touches the whole busi- 



SPEECH OF HON. JOSEPH G. CANNON. 11 

ness of the countrv, which is one-third the business of the entire 
civilized world. 

THE HIGH COST OF LIVING. 

A good man}' people complain of the high cost of living, and 1 will 
not say that it is exactly described by James J. Hill in his epigram of 
the cost of high living, hut there has been a tendency throughout the 
century to live better, and each generation in this countiy has lived 
better than the one that preceded it, and that is the one great ideal for 
which we have labored through the years. I hope it will continue and 
that we can continue here to develop a better civilization than any- 
where else in the world by protecting our labor and industry against 
the competition of the labor and industry in the more crowded parts 
of the earth. When anybody tells me that our labor is now no better 
off than the labor of Europe 1 look to Castle Garden and tind the 
answer in the thousands of inmiig-rants who come here every year and 
tind employment and become a part of our civilization. 

But we have other testimon}- from our American consular sei vice, 
from the agents of the Department of Commerce and Labor, and from 
Mr. Samuel (xompers. president of the American Federation of Labor, 
to the effect that wages in America are double the wages in Europe, and 
that the cost of living is no higher here than there. I could weary you 
with details from these reports from those most interested in knowing 
the truth about this question, but I will not, except to quote a conclud^ 
ing sentence from the annual report of Mr. Gompers to the Federation 
of Labor after he made a personal tour of investigation in Europe. 
Mr. Gompers savs: 

If the immigrant of this country is willing to continue living here at the same level 
he^was obliged to accept in his native land, he can find it for the same money. 

He adds: 

Meat is usually from 25 to 100 per cent higher in price than in the United States. 

When this statement is coupled with a detailed comparison by Mr. 
Gompers of wage scales here with those for the same kind of labor in 
Europe, and the general conclusion that wages in America are double 
those in Europe, we can readily understand why the immigrant con- 
tinues to come in spite of the statements that they can not improve 
their condition. 

Down here in Massachusetts where you are building new factories, 
and running on full time those which wei'e builded before, with 
increasing wages to your operatives, and where you are making fair 
profits, who are the men that are doing the lal)or in vour factories^ 
Are they your children, the children of the Puritan stocks Nay, nav. 
They are the foreign born, largely from Canada, a less number froni 
Europe. They may be ignorant: they may be. part of them at times, 
uncomfortable, but in the United States, with a common-school system 
that daily instructs l,s,0()<),(tOO of oncoming sovereigns at the public 
expense, costing almost $4O0,OiH>,O0i». four-tenths of all the money that 
is spent in all the world, civilized and uncivilized, for the purposes of 
education, as long as they come of the Caucasian race, willing to 
live in the sweat of their faces, with the example and inspiration of 
their brothers who have preceded tliem, the common schools in the 
future as in the past will, I believe, enable us to assimilate them, as 



12 SPEECH OF HON. JOSEPH G. CANNON. 

mtiMV of our forebears were assiniiluted, after they hnd crossed in the 
stecrao-e from tl)o old world to the new. We have ninety niillions 
now. '"We had thirty millions when Lincoln was elected President. 

After all oui- enormous expenditures, after we have lived as no people 
ever lived l)efore in the history of the race, the savings from labor 
since lb«'»<>, in spite of these enormous burdens which we have borne, 
have increased from Sl(>.tU)O.0O'J,00(> then to >^1l>5,000,ou(),000 to-day, 
two-fifths of all the wealth of all the world. The Black Ilander will 
come in and does come in. The Black Hander reads, the Black Hander 
writes. The anarchist may come in. Me reads; he writes. 1 have 
listened with ureat interest to the remarks of ex-Governor Black here 
this evening-. While I would continue to prevent contract labor from 
comin*:- to our shores, and while 1 would shut out the pauper and the 
criminal, 1 would not siuit out the capable and industrious Anglo- 
Saxon. I would shut out the Chinaman l)ecause of his habits and his 
capacity to live cheaply and because he does not bear the burdens of 
our civilization. If we did not shut him out. he would put us all out 
of business. |Laut(hter and applause.] Jf the world should take its 
hand oti' the Chinaman and let him come without regulation, he in his 
patient laboi- and his changeless orientalism would conquer the world. 

ho much for that. May I add one word^ As I look into your 
faces 1 realize that many of those V)ef()re me are descendants of the 
Pilgrims and of the Puritans. Many of you are not. Oh. how Massa- 
chusetts and New Kngland have been like a benediction to that great 
West stretching beyond the Alleghenies to the l*acitic coast I Asa 
schoolboy in the log schoolhouse, my earliest knowledge of books 
was of Noah Webster's elementary spelling book. You never used it. 
Most of you do not know that it was the first modern schoolbook. 
In that western countr\" that was our first book, beginning to spell 
a b ab. b-a ba. cat cat. d-o-g dog, clear through until we came in the 
the tinal pages of that speller to those wonderful words like "incom- 
patibility." We would begin, i-n in, c-o-m, com. incom. p-a-t pat, 
and so on. syllal)le by sylhible. until we s])elled it out and pronounced 
it. I do not think the later publishers have much improved on Noah 
Webstei''s elementary spelling book: t)ut by paper, by magazine, by 
your good >chools you became evangels for the common school system. 
You gave us many of the t)est that you had. 

As your high schools and your universities graduated them, Uke 
the course of empire, westward they took their way. You have min- 
gled in that great West with the Scotch-Irish from Tennessee and 
North Carolina and Kentucky, and it has made a magnificent civiliza- 
tion. We feel grateful to you. And yet. Governor Black, while I 
agree with much you have said, and while 1 would by \n\\ and by the 
enforcement of the law more rigidly shut out and keep out the pauper, 
the t-riminal, and the diseased, yet when T recollect that my ancestors 
on one si<h^ crossed the Atlantic Ocean in what was worse than the 
steerage, before the days of steam, one hundred and fifty years ago, 
1 am not willing, as long as we need the labor of the Caucasian race, 
to shut out those who honestly come here willing to work and partake 
of our civilization. ( Applause. 1 



SPEECH OF HON. JOSEPH G. CANNON. 13 

THE RULES OF THE HOUSE. 

I have been asked to say a word about the rides of the House — a 
word, after the ocean of words that have been hurled at the rules in 
the last two years. 

Thomas B. Reed once said: — 

The noise made by a small but loud minority in the wrong is too often mistaken 
for the voice of the people and the voice of God. 

That remark applies to the discussion of the rules. 

The rules are the development of one hundred and twenty years, and 
they are now substantially as they have been for a generation. Just 
twenty years ayo we had a campaign of denunciation against these rules, 
and all that has been said in the last two years was said then. Then it 
was the '"'■ loud minority " trying to dictate legislation, as it is now . The 
Democrats were in the minority in the Fifty-first Congress, but they 
tried to dictate legislation. Speaker Reed, and the majority responsi- 
ble for legislation, refused to be dictated to. Reed counted a quorum 
of those who were present for mischief, but declared the}"^ were not 
present for business. That action of Reed was denounced as '"czarism." 
The discussion became international, but the Supreme Court sustained 
Reed, and so did the Democratic party when it came into power. It 
adopted what it had denounced as the Reed rides, absolutely repudi- 
ating the denunciation it had written into its platforms in nearly ever}' 
State in the L'nion. The rules had not been changed in any particu- 
lar since they were used by the Democratic Fifty-third Congress until 
a yeai" ago a new rule creating calendar XA'ednesda}' was adopted. 

Why this fuss and fiirv? The old cause, the effort of the minority 
to rule. On the eve of the last Presidential election the Democratic 
leader sought to dictate legislation. The majority would not accept 
dictation. He began a filibuster which continued to the end of the 
session, frankly stating on the Hoorthat the minority would resist and 
embarrass in every way possible all legislation, unless certain meas- 
ures demanded by the minority should be brought foi'ward. The 
Democratic platform denounced the czarism of the Speaker, just as 
the Democratic platforms did in 1890. The minority had demanded 
legislation for special interests, not for the general interest. There were 
other special interests demanding that the Speaker use arbitrary 
power in their behalf. When he refused to violate the rules and tra- 
ditions of the House he was denounced a "czar." 

When we have to change the rules to permit the minority to dictate 
legislation in behalf of special interests, we will l)e confronted with 
the necessity of changing our Constitution and all our conceptions of 
a people's government, where the majority shall legislate and accept 
responsibility for the legislation. 

We are told in Holy Writ that the Creator made Adam out of clay, 
and he still remained clay until the Creator breathed the breath of life 
into his nostrils and he became man. The Committee on Rules is the 
machinery of the House, to report special oixleis, or for change of 
rules. The resolution from that committee might be likened unto 
Adam, and is not worth the paper on which it is written initil a major- 
ity of the House, by a vote, has bi-eathed the breath of life into it so 
that it becomes a rule of the House. It was so in the past: it is so 
now. 



14 SPEECH OF HON. JOSEPH G. ( ANxVON. 

One word in conclusion. 1 am a believer in organization of men 
for lawful purposes. You have the copartnership, you have the 
corporation. Jf vou could prevent both of them now by law, the 
civilization of the people would turn back a hundred yeai's^ 1 believe 
in oruanization in the church, the Free Masons, the Odd I^ellovvs, all 
the benevolent societies. 1 believe in club organization; and in the 
chuncino- conditions of production, if I lived in the sweat of my face 
I wordd^cooperute with my brothers, always keeping the law, so that 
we mit'ht united make contracts with those who employed us, to our 
best advantage. 1 sav alwavs undei- the law. I heartily endorse what 
Governor Black has said, aiid will add a single sentence: All men are 
eciual under the law. whether thev be rich or poor. Like the grace 
of (iod, the law covers all and protects all, and if this civilization 
fails, it'will fail because the demagogue on one hand, or seltish and 
powerful interests on the other seek class legislation and ditlerent laws 
for one from what we have for all. [Applause.] While all men are 
eiiual before the law. all men are not eiiual physically or mentally. 
The insane asylum, the home for the feeble minded, the brethren who 
fall by the wayside, all are evidences of that. It is our duty to care 
for all these at the common expense, and we have made great progress 
in a hundred years along that line. For some wise reason, under the 
oi)eration of universal law made by the Almighty when he created 
matter, the human animal works out his own salvation. 

We can not tell why all of us are not 6 feet 4 inches high, and why 
we do not all weigh 2»»0 pounds, and why we do not live for a thou- 
sand years, but we do not. We take conditions as we find them and 
under this law work out our salvation. And when somebody attacks 
the church of John Knox, or wlien -omebody who belongs to the 
Methodist Church, or to the mother church, walks out and denounces 
all those with whom he formerly consorted as corrupt, and says that 
he alone has the live wire to the'great white throne, or when somebody 
forsakes the concrete wisdom of all the ages, as developed in the 
exi)erience of a people who are competent, and growing more com- 
petent, to govern them.selves, and says: •'! am wiser and better than 
all the rest of you," and flocks by himself and proclaims, as 1 have 
fre(iuently heard them, that '^(iod and one are a majority,'' I always 
feel like saying, " My poor, simple friend, did you ever stop to think 
that (xod is a majority without oneT' [Applause and laughter.] 

They proclaim that the Republican party next November is to go to 
the bow wows. My honored colleague, the leader of the minority [Mr. 
Clark, of Missouri}, a giant in stature, a good-tempered man, now, as 
for nearly twenty years past, prances up and down the aisles of the 
House every week and informs us that " Mene, mene, tekel, upharsin" 
is writt6n on the wall, and that we have been weighed in the Imlance 
and found wanting, and that his |)arty is to bo clothed with power. 
When he was telling us that the other day in the House I was reminded 
of that Sunday-school story : The teacher was telling to a class of bright- 
eyed little boys the story of David and (joliatii, how old Goliath strut- 
ted out before the armies of the living (lod and sent his defiance ; and 
one little sharp-eyed boy said, "Skip that, ma'am, he's a blowin'I" 
1 Laughter.] 

The Republican party has temporarily, from time to time, in various 
vStates and in the country, gone to ])artial or complete defeat; but I 
say to the men of New England, as I will say later on to the men of 



SPEECH OF HON. JOSEPH G. CANNON. 15 

the Middle West, " Keep the faith.'' Our policies have demonstrated 
that they are right. When our party was born there were no settle- 
ments west of the Missouri River. It was a stretch of desert and 
mountains. Under our policies of protection and development com- 
monwealths have sprung into existence as if b}^ magic. Keep the 
faith. Brave men, as individuals and in the aggregate, in the affairs 
of life, in cloudy days as well as in bright days, close up the ranks as 
some weak or dissatisfied brother drops out, and move on. We had 
better keep the faith, and fighting fail, than to have a victory that will 
give us another House of Representatives and another Senate of the 
United States like unto the present House and Senate, where no man 
can tell from day to day whether the Republican party has a majority 
or not. We had better fight and fail, than to fight and win and have 
the victory, like dead sea fruit, turn to ashes on our lips. [Prolonged 
applause.] 

A TOAST TO GKANT. 

(jentlemcn, the life of Grant was a valuable one to this country for 
what he did in the years of our Government's greatest peril. He 
helped save the Union and assisted in establishing the Republic on an 
enduring basis. Since that time, under the policies of his party, your 
party, and my party, the wealth of the countr}' has been multiplied b}^ 
eight, the agricultural product by six, and the manufactured product 
has been multiplied by ten. This is the result of the wise economic 
policy of Lincoln which came in with the salvation of the Union and 
the establishment of free labor everywhere in the land. 

o 



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